William Morris (Bill) Irwin was born in North Adelaide on 1l December 1914 and died there on 15th July 1994 following a long period of declining health.

He came from an educational background, his father, Rev W H Irwin, having taught at St Peter’s College, Adelaide while his mother Edith, née Morris, was one-time headmistress of Melbourne Girls Grammar School. Bill had two younger siblings.

In August 1951 he married Phyllis Hayward and they had two children, Verity, a general practitioner and Charles, an architect and planner.

Bill’s schooling was at St Peter’s College and subsequently the University of Adelaide, where he graduated MBBS in 1938, followed by an intern year at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). His subsequent medical career was interrupted by his war service. He joined the AIF in 1940 with the rank of captain and served initially in the Middle East with the 2/6 Field Ambulance, being promoted to major in 1942.

He returned to Australia in 1944 and was later in charge of the 17th Field Ambulance in New Guinea with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was mentioned in despatches. Following his discharge in August 1946 he undertook post-graduate study in London, with the help of a Nuffield Scholarship, concentrating on general medicine and gastroenterology. In 1949 he obtained membership of the RCP.

On his return to Adelaide in 1949 he joined the staff of the RAH and gained his MRACP in 1950, being elected FRACP in 1957 and FRCP in 1974. His appointments at the RAH were successively those of honorary assistant physician 1950-54, honorary physician 1955-70 and senior VMO 1971-76, all of these posts involving regular undergraduate teaching responsibilities. Concurrent with his hospital duties he was engaged in consultant practice in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

He was a member of the BMA and then the AMA and was also chairman of the honorary medical staff society of the RAH in the late 1960s. He became a foundation member of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Bill held the position of Vestryman for Christ Church, North Adelaide, for 17 years and was a member of Adelaide Synod for five years. He was a keen, regular golfer at Royal Adelaide Golf Club and had a life-long love of watching sports. He enjoyed reading and crosswords and had a strong interest in travel, family and friends. As a colleague he was scrupulously fair and honest and could be relied upon to produce a satisfactory conclusion to contentious issues when such occasions arose.

He was for some years CMO for the AMP Society in Adelaide, a position he held with great pride.